With an uninteresting world and dull combat, the survival horror game ZombiU is a weak link in the Wii U's launch lineup.

The survival horror genre is a balancing act. The player needs to feel fear and helplessness, but also needs satisfying ways to take action and combat those feelings. This harmony is something even the genre greats struggle with, but that hasn't stopped the first-person survival horror game ZombiU, the latest to throw its hat in the ring--and on a new console no less. However, its vision of a zombie-infested London not only fails to create an engaging horror experience, but also falls short of being a good game.

Combat is how you spend most of your time in ZombiU. Many environments are claustrophobic, your ability to run is limited, and the zombies can easily keep pace with your character at walking speed. Attempting to charge past the horde can lead to receiving some painful glancing hits or getting surrounded by the undead. The best course of action is to play it safe and dispatch all the zombies you encounter.

This means luring enemies away one by one and clobbering them with the cricket bat. This melee method can take a long time, since the number of hits needed to fell a foe changes randomly. And no one zombie, even the faster ones or the armored ones, poses an engaging threat individually. You just stand there, hitting and waiting. Tools such as flares and land mines break up the monotony, but their contribution is fleeting.

Firearms are faster and deadlier, but are not as readily available as the cricket bat. A shortage of weapons is not uncommon for the survival horror genre, but ZombiU’s emphasis on fighting makes this scarcity sting. New weapons and ammo are uncommon, and can be lost if your character dies and you cannot recover his or her backpack after respawning. A more cautious strategy is to hoard weapons away and circumvent this risk, relying solely on the cricket bat and pistol that new characters always start with.

A zombie tackle means instant death, unless you have some Virucide.

Whether you choose to conserve your bullets or you use them as soon as you pick them up, most of your time spent fighting will be with the laborious cricket bat. Dispatching enemies this way is as repetitive as it is dull, and does not change throughout the entire campaign.

What does change are the protagonists. ZombiU takes an interesting approach by casting you as a new character every time you die, but struggles to stay consistent. In the beginning, your hero is taken in by the Prepper, a military man well versed in zombie survival (and conspiracy theories). But when that first character dies, the game's logic dies with him. It is not uncommon for the Prepper to yell at newcomers about issues they know nothing about.

Shouts of "I thought we were partners!" or "Why are you betraying me?" have zero context to a new arrival. Within the game's narrative, this person just got here. And since your hero is mute and disposable, all characters you encounter communicate at you, rather than with you (and they do not talk with each other). Everyone you meet is basically shouting at a very confused brick wall. This is not ideal for maintaining the unease and mystery of a horror story.

Bright lights expose your characters' extremely dirty vision.

The Wii U gamepad functionality doesn't contribute much to the game. The pad’s functions include displaying the map and your inventory, and being the place where you tap to interact with things such as wooden barricades or manhole covers. When tapping on an object, you are treated to a reverse shot showing what’s going on behind your character. Every so often a zombie will shamble into frame, creating slight panic as you tap away.

Other functions are simply better handled through traditional controller inputs. Cycling between weapons via touch screen or constantly dragging items to and from your backpack is not ideal. And scanning the environments for items means you do most of the exploration in a very detached, clinical way.

It's a zombie rave, open your mind and let the music take control!

Sadly, what you do in that world is not very interesting. The vast majority of your missions boil down to simple fetch quests. Go here. Collect this. Return it. Any side quests are self-assigned item runs in case you lose a gun or need some extra supplies. The few puzzles you encounter are follow the same pattern: scan the walls for numbers to input on key pads. In the end, most of your time is spent lazily hitting zombies with cricket bats.

Thankfully, ZombiU's multiplayer works well. This local-only, two-player mode casts one player as the zombie king and the other as the survivor. Both players are trying to capture flags, but have wildly different play styles. The king deploys AI-controlled zombies from a top-down view on the touch screen, while the survivor kills those zombies and tries to survive the onslaught. Both sides earn rewards as the match progresses.

In this mode, the game's design really comes together. Individually, the different zombie classes aren't very interesting to fight. But in a large group their specific roles make for more fun and engaging encounters. The survivor player enjoys the challenge of these dynamic encounters and unloads with a full arsenal, which the zombie king strategizes with different groups of zombies. This high-action mode is the opposite of the rest of the game's design, and is infinitely more enjoyable.

In the assault multiplayer mode both sides fight to control three flags.

ZombiU is a game trapped in the wrong genre. The run-and-gun multiplayer modes emphasize the game's competent shooting mechanics and ability to create interesting enemy encounters. However, these two aspects are discouraged in the single-player campaign for the sake of survival. To compensate, there's the bare minimum of a story and a few simple puzzles. And so much cricket bat. ZombiU could have been an enjoyable action game, but instead it is a poor entry in the survival horror genre.

He has played this game in as linear way as possible simply to give it a negative score. Yes, you can simply use the bat but, as other have said, that is not enforced or a constraint and there are many imaginative ways to play the game. It is a stunning game on the Wii U that encompasses the same perma-death and messaging mechanic of a Souls game. To go and have to find your zombified previous self is brilliant!! The game is full of atmosphere and makes great use of the Gamepad. Metacritic shows this as the only negative review!! Way to go Gamespot!!.. Maxwell McGee has obviously no taste or imagination in how to play a survival horror!

im just now getting around to play this now that I finally have a WIIU and I picked it up real cheap. I gotta say, I couldn't disagree with this review more. yeah this isn't the best looking game out there and there are some frame rate and loading issues but it im having a blast with it. atmospheric and immersive. im giving it an 8.

after about 3 hours of playing this game I can already say that the reviewer completely ignored how the rooms focus on killing the zombies in smart ways rather than going one by one with the bat. If he played it in this way, then it was his choice, not a game constraint. This game deserved a deeper analysis than a shallow "I am too bored to realize how to play this game" review.

I don't know what game this reviewer's played, but it certainly doesn't sound like the game I've just completed that's for sure! It's certainly not a perfect game, we know that, but I've played video-games starting with the Atari2600 through the Amstrad CPC to the gamecube, xboxes, playstations, handhelds and currently the Wii U and it was a fun game for me!

Maxwell McGee's review in this game is a bunch of senseless shit. This game deserves at least 7. Please, ignore all the babbling from this kid and go buy this game if you like this genre. It's a solid game and I can assure you that you don't gonna be disappointed.

Since the late 19th century, the standard way of reviewing a piece of work has been to judge it by WHAT IT ATTEMPTS TO ACHIEVE.

Maxwell McGee = complete $#&*ing fool.

I've have only ZombiU for a few days, and am completely enraptured with the tension, atmosphere and dread that comes over me when playing this game. The challenge is addicting, and grows more so as you get more comfortable with the game's mechanics. It comes down to your willingness to give yourself over to the experience and engage it on its terms, not yours.

To put it another way, if your favorite movie is Top Gun, you just might think that Stanley Kubrick's movies are "slow." :P

Okay I'm in the twilight zone because this game is amazing. I mean it's an incredible game. I mean there is no way in hell character models a little rough around the edges and a cricket bat make one of the most detailed, engaging, intense and solid games in years a 4.5. ZombiU is one of the best horror/zombie games I've ever played.

My friend had me over his place to play this game and i fell asleep when i pass the control.....I didnt really feel the whole dark experience of ZombiU when i play it.... Even my brothers think its retarded to buy it . Im still a fan of Nintendo, but i won't favor this game .

People just think they are cool hating Nintendo, if they only knew how stupid that sounds... Who reinvented gaming?Last I checked, not CoD, not Halo.Mario and the NES did.My guess, these people are stuck up jerkstores who are determined to make Nintendo look bad

oh well a Wii U exclusive getting a bad score from Microspot sorry Gamespot what a surprise ever since they merged all the gamespot sites together the site has become ver xbox centric but then again they are now all run from america so what do you expect

about the game this is one of the most fun zombie games i have played in a while and when he said "The Wii U gamepad functionality doesn't contribute much to the game" what was he smoking? the fact you have to use the gamepad to access your inventory or pick locks while the game still plays is a great thing because if it happened in real life i'm sure the zombies wouldn't wait while you look through your bag

sorry GS you guys have really gone downhill and i don't just mean on this review i mean on everything that isn't xbox (playstation or nintendo) get your c*** out of microsofts a** and try being a bit more impartial like you should be

Graphically inferior, that is true. Sony and MS consoles were graphically superior and more powerful than N's Wii.

Gimmicky? I recall that the 'gimmicky' controller had both MS and Sony jumping around to create their Kinnect and Move features for their consoles to compete with N's 'gimmicky controller' the following year. They began a big push to try and attract the family, casual gaming, the exercising and dancing/singing community as well. That does not sound gimmicky to me. That is MS and Sony seeing N doing something that they took granted and they had to catch up. The impact of the controller and gameplay highly motivated the other two console makers. Stop minimizing history. N did something right with that graphically primitive game console

As for the Wii U, what it is capable of will depend on what the 3rd party developers decide to do with that new gamepad controller. It will either flop because developers do not see it worth the investment, or it will take off and we will see MS and Sony scrambling again to develop soemthing that is similar to what N is doing. Either way, competition and variety wise, I would like to see N's console succeed because it will push the other two makers to come out with a great product. Waving the 'Next Gen' graphics and 'Next Gen' online gameplay alone cards will not do it.

Ok, just spent a good chunk of time with this game. I generally don't like second guessing the gamespot reviews because even when they're stingy (skyward sword) you can at least see their point even if you don't agree with it. For this game they really dropped the ball and I hope this guy's reviews get scrutinised by the senior staff in the future.

It's damaging to give a game this kind of score but you kind of feel like in this case it was casually assigned because the guy was in a bad mood or something. They way he talks about it is more consistent with a 6, which isn't a million miles from the mean score. A 4.5 is off putting and almost made me not buy the game. Lucky I looked at other reviews too.

My feelings is that it's by no means a perfect game and there are issues to iron out but the atmosphere it manages to create makes it a real joy to play and the fact that it doesn't feel like the same old FPS re-hash says a lot. A solid 7.5, maybe 8

@ac1907 I've not played this game and I doubt I'll get a Wii U but when the Metacritic score is 77 and most reviews for this game that I've seen rate it between 6 - 8 then, yeah, you do start to wonder about the validity of this review.